Chosen Darkness (Chosen Series) (6 page)

Falyn’s father, Malcom, was a pure blood Lycan, and from what Alex could gather from Malcom, her mother was a shape shifter from a Native tribe. Lycan did not like their kind bedding anyone outside their own bloodline. Even blending genetics among the different bloodlines was not allowed. Death seemed like a harsh sentence for a little fun between the sheets.

He wanted to be mad at himself for being so stupid but the truth was that he had no idea she was the girl they were looking for, that she was anything more than a normal human with a gift. Now his rage built up at this girl, this woman-child who had made him think she was nothing more.

She was being hunted by Shadow wolves, the Lycan Court and God knows who or what else, but the only one she truly had to fear was Alex because he was going to be the one to catch her.

He sat in his hidden spot on the Bitten pack’s land, watching the large home and waiting to catch a glimpse of Falyn. He saw many of the pack members come and go, even seeing a few change before roaming the hills behind the house, yet there was still no sign of the girl he came here to collect. Thanks to the fact a vampire is odorless, the wolves did not pick up on him.

They came in as the light of dusk washed away – a shadow growing from one to forty right before his eyes. The Bitten pack smelled them, but it was too late. They were already closing in, huge dark wolves with fire-glowing eyes. The damned of the werewolf line.

The fight was brought outside, Alex was quick to pick up on Falyn, catching her scent the minute she rushed out the back door. Framed by two large pack members, they made a mad dash for the sports car.

Impressed with their escape, Alex waited for the car to make it down the driveway right to the spot where he lay in waiting. He landed on the hood of the car with enough force to smash the engine into the ground. The car lunched forward then landed with a thud back on all its wheels.

Alex had no wish to kill any of the wolves but, if they fought, he would defend himself. The driver came through the window at him, teeth bared, in the middle of his change. Alex slammed his fist into his face, then tossed him like a rag doll across the meadow.

The other wolf, now fully changed, flung himself out of the car. His eyes glowed with the deep red of an Alpha. He circled Alex in a slow, predator-like walk.

Alex waited for him to make the first move. When the Alpha lunged for him, he moved to the side quicker than the wolf could correct for. Grabbing the wolf by his scruff, he flung him into a tree. But unlike the other wolf, the Alpha was stronger, more powerful, he quickly got to his feet.

This time the Alpha knew how fast Alex could be so he moved in slowly until he was inches from Alex. He let out a growl, his teeth bared.

“Come on,” Alex sneered.

The Alpha was all too happy to oblige. With one powerful leap he landed behind Alex then knocked him to the ground. Alex felt the powerful teeth of the Alpha as they sank into his neck. He had not fought with an Alpha werewolf in his lifetime. Vampires and werewolves were not friendly however they had not fought one another since the Great War. They merely avoided each other. Alex had no way of knowing how much stronger an Alpha would be than an ordinary werewolf.

Alex kept his wits about him. He still had lightning speed on his side, and in his pocket, he had two doses of silver in a syringe. These would take out either a vampire or a werewolf. So in one swift motion he pulled one free then sinking it into the Alpha’s side. Within seconds he felt the jaws of the wolf go slack. Alex shoved the Alpha off him.

Falyn was in the passenger seat, her eyes wide with shock. Alex jumped back onto the hood of the car. Falyn stared at him. Her mouth was hanging open and Alex could see her teeth were already growing. Her eyes were glowing bright yellow.

Alex reached through the broken windscreen and pulled her to him. Quickly using the other dose of silver on her.

“Alex!” she screamed, as he brought her face to his.

“Falyn, it seems you have been keeping a few things from me!” Alex gave her slow smile before he tugged her into his arms.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that, little wolf!” Alex was already moving at vampire speed toward his Jeep.

“Did you kill them?” she growled into his neck. “What are you? I thought you were a human!”

“Well, makes us even then because I thought you were merely a human too,” Alex snarled at her. “And I didn’t kill them, merely incapacitate them.”

“You’re mad at me for not telling you I was a werewolf?” Falyn demanded in shock.

“Easy there, little wolf. You didn’t feel it but I gave you a shot of silver. You won’t be changing anytime soon,” he cooed in her ear.

“What…is…? I’m starting to hate you!” she hissed at him.

“Good feelings only get in the way of a job,” Alex muttered as he tossed her into his car.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“I am taking you home to Daddy,” Alex told her sweetly.

“No,” Falyn whispered, the effects of sliver working their way through her bloodstream.

“I’m not worried about what you want, babe, I have a job to finish!”

“Is that all I am to you… A job?” Falyn asked, her voice soft.

“Yeah, sweetheart, that’s all.”

He laughed, not because she was so wrong but because, for a while, he too had thought there was more to his feelings. She let out a gasp but didn’t say another word. Her eyes went dark, but not before he saw the pain in them.

Alex felt horrible about it the second the words left his mouth. He would not take it back. He would not try to fix the rift between them: after all, she
was
just another job.

Malcom would be waiting for his daughter at his compound in the Rockies. Alex had been there a few times. It wasn’t a bad place. It was large, seemed Malcom had made a good home for him and his pack there. He was Falyn’s father meaning he would not harm her. She would be safe, plus Malcom would keep the others from her.

Alex looked over at the young woman. Even as he told himself he did not care about her, something stirred inside him, something he could not explain.

The shot of silver had knocked her out. It would also keep her from going all wolf on him for over twenty-four hours. And it would only be another hour now before he pulled up in front of her father’s home. For the last eighteen hours his mind had been trying to convince him his gut was wrong.

Still, he could not rid himself of the feeling of dread at handing her over as he arrived at the compound. His heartbeat was slow, not because it had been days since he last fed, but because he was unsure about a job for the first time in his life.

Malcom met him at his car as soon as he pulled in. He opened the door taking Falyn out. He looked pleased to see her.

“What is the plan… for Falyn?” Alex asked him.

Malcom smiled at him as he handed his daughter over to one of his pack members.

“Don’t worry, Alex, she will be well cared for. She’s safe here.”

Malcom gave Alex his pay before turning to walk up the stairs into his home.

Alex set there in the parking lot for a while, staring at the front door trying to convince himself Falyn was going to be fine now. With a promise to himself to come check up on her in a few months, he pulled out of the parking lot, back to his life as a tracker.

Chapter Seven: Betrayed

Broken was how she felt: broken and alone. She was being punished again by the man who called himself her father. From the moment she had awoken in his compound, her life had been hell. It had been six months since Alex had turned her over to her father.

At first he had seemed caring. She awoke in a plush bed in a large room with a view of the snowcapped mountain. Her father told her the sad story of how he lost her after her mother had a mental breakdown during her pregnancy. It all fit into a story book just fine.

As Falyn quickly found out, that was all it was: a fairy-tale created to brainwash her into giving over whatever magic he seemed to think she had.

He stared out with a nice approach, offering to train her on how to use it better, but Falyn had no idea what magic he was seeking. She showed him how she found people but that, he felt, was a wolf gift and not the magic her mother’s people had. Her mother, it turned out, was considerably more than merely a shape shifting Native.

No, her mother had a much older, scared race in her bloodline. Druids, her father told her.

Still, despite all this info cramped into her brain and all the lessons he gave her, she could not find a link to this magic. She was not even sure she had such a gift. Falyn told him this many times but each time he would swear she did.

Yet it took only a few weeks for him to resort to darker means, locking her in a cell with nothing but metal and concrete around her. Starving her, and, worse yet, denying her body to change by forcing silver into her veins. Her whole body now ached with the need to change. Muscles, bones all burning for it. Even her mind was being affected after three months of not turning.

“Please!” she begged again as he stood outside her cell.

“Please what, Falyn? Please let you out? Please let you change? You have to give me more than ‘please’!” Malcom’s voice may have been soft but it was hardly friendly.

“Please let me out,” she moaned as her body twisted on the cool floor.

“I’ll give you everything you want, daughter, if you only show me your power.”

God
, Falyn thought,
how many times is he going to ask for the one thing I can’t do
?

“I don’t know how,” she moaned again.

“ENOUGH!” he roared at her. “You’re not trying. You’re being weak, refusing to reach deep to pull the magic free!” His tone was harsh.

“No, you’re wrong.” Falyn pleaded with him, too weak to do much else.

When she came to once more, she was alone again. She felt like hell. If she had ever wondered what could be worse than death, she no longer needed to. The pain was so bad now that she would die willingly. Why was he not killing her yet? She was not able to do what he wanted, so what would finally push him over the edge and make him snap?

The cell door slammed open then and a man she had not seen before pulled her up, forcing her to walk. With each step her legs screamed in pain.

“Come on, work through it!” he told her.

She tried to look at his face, but she didn’t have enough strength to move her hair from her eyes to see. She stumbled to the ground. Whereas the other men who dragged her out of her cell would kick her if she fell, this one scooped her up in his arms.

Her hair fell back from her face as he lifted her so she could now see the man. He was older than the others, and the more she stared at him, the more she saw how much like Malcom he looked.

“Ah, you see it now, don’t you?” he asked softly.

He didn’t stop to wait for her to answer.

“Yes, Malcom is my son, making you my granddaughter. I don’t agree with his plans for you. See, little one I plan to help you but it is going to come at a price,” he told her.

Falyn had lost her will and ability to speak so she only closed her eyes as he carried her out into the night air. Setting her down on the ground, it felt like heaven: the earth, the night air and, more comforting, the moonlight.

“I can free you, Falyn, but you will lose your human form, along with your wolf too. You will be stuck in the middle in a form the magic picks. This source of magic is not from our world.”

His words made no sense.

“I brought you out here to ask if this is something you would be willing to do to be free, but now I know I must do it without asking because it is the only way. I owe this to you as I should have done it for your mother.”

He stroked her hair as she looked up into the pale moon.

“You see, an old friend has come looking for you but I can’t free you, not without it being obvious that I did. I am the only one among this pack that deals with magic. I have something which will help you get away from him. It’s not much but hopefully enough to aid you.” He was looking at her now. “And in turn you can leave safely with your friend… a man by the name of Alex.”

His words brought her eyes wide open.

“Alex?” she repeated softly.

“Ah, so he means something to you… Um, odd, a vampire and a werewolf!” He chuckled at this.

Falyn could not wrap her head around the word ‘vampire’. Of course, she knew they roamed around along with the other immortals, but she had never come face to face with one until Alex. Still, a vampire? It was odd to put this word to Alex!

“You know that it is forbidden to be with him? The Lycan Court would never allow it. But it is too late now. He wears your mark, one your father will take much joy in burning off if he ever lays eyes on it.”

Seeing her eyes go big, he knew it was affecting her, the idea of Alex being hurt.

“So you care for him! I will give you this fix, your freedom, but you will have to deal with the issues it brings you. Falyn, you’re running out of time!”

He tipped her head back pouring a sweet liquid into her mouth. The sweet taste raced along her throat and through her body till she felt she was burning from the inside. Closing her eyes she felt her muscles finally release and her bones break, letting her mind go free of the insanity from not changing in months.

When her eyes next opened, she was inside once more but not in her cell. She looked around her, sensing at once something was wrong. As her grandfather had warned, she was neither in human nor wolf form. Looking down she saw paws but not the massive ones that should be there!

Running down the halls, she followed the sound of voices until she came to a large room. It was some kind of meeting room, judging from the large table with rows of chairs. Her father was in there, along with the man calling himself her grandfather – the man who had saved her by turning her… But what had he turned her into?